The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[lalaland]

I purchased the basic H but have never use it. I'm taking the "if it ain't broke don't fix it" stance on this.

But sometimes I wonder if I should use it maybe a couple times a year for prevention. Not sure what I think about that at this point.

Lala - refresh my memory - were you seeing worms regularly before?

I saw one wormy poop, followed a few weeks later by a sickly hen, who wasn't eating, was hunched up and puffed out, and clearly underweight. Delisha told me to give her olive oil, which I did. I gave her a few drops of kerosene in her water, and in a few days she was back to normal. I think it was Delisha's olive oil dose that did the trick, although I don't understand why. I wondered if she had a worm overload - and two of the other wellies were clearly underweight too. So....I tried kerosene in the water for one day for the whole flock. I did not see any more worms, but there are plenty of places for wormy poops that I wouldn't see.

It is the underweight part that makes me think worms. Am going to follow up with the soapy water but given that it is RAINING!! on top of all this snow I don't think they will drink from the waterers, so I am going to wait a few days to see if it gets colder, and they will be more likely to drink from the waterer.

I know in the 20's, my grandmother gave her dishwater to the chickens or the pigs. Not sure if it was thriftiness, to get every last little bit of food value, or if there was a thought about the soap being good for them. Course that wasn't the soap we have today, but am thinking a castile soap would be ok.

Heard that every chicken has worms, but have also heard from plenty of folks doing necropsy's or butchering who say they didn't see any worms. Worm overload = wight loss and poor condition. Wellies are too thin, does that = worm overload? Or is it due to low protein? And how long does it take for a hen to put on weight?

 

[aoxa]

Absolutely precious! Lucky Margaret!!!

I love the Parker and Margret picture! Thank you for sharing.

I have pips..and now my silkies are in lock down. I have 10 eggs in lock down.

Thanks guys. He is one cute kid I have to say.. If my brother has done anything right it is that kid.

We've been gardening and he really wants to be a farmer. We planted sunflowers for him to take home and watch grow.

The silkies you are hatching - are they catdance?

 

[lalaland]

I came home tonight to 3 EE and 2 leghorns. Darn farm store sucked my DH in this time!

lol! He won't be the only one I try to avoid feed stores at this time of year.

 

[lalaland]

ok, I feel stupid.
At my feed store, they were clearing out some chicken treats, all made by "farmers helper" - they make "baby cake" for chicks, forage cakes, and they had this product called "ultrakibble" which looked like little greasy pellets, smaller than peas. It has 32 % protein, lots of interesting ingredients like spinach pulp, watercress, tumeric, cinnamon, salmon meal, probiotics, fish meal, with corn gluten meal, sorghum and oil being the first 3 ingredients. I think the normal price for a 28 oz package was like 10 or 12 bucks, but the feed store had it for 2 bucks.

Clerk said no one was buying this "designer chicken stuff" and they were getting rid of the line.

I figured, 2 bucks, high protein.....have some skinny hens, why not?

Well, I'll tell you why not: nothing eats this stuff! Not my chickens, not the birds, not the squirrels. Chickens pick it up, and drop it immediately, and don't come back to it. Ate wet mash, but left behind this stuff, so they probably spit it out. Put some in the bird feeder, left untouched. Poured some out for squirrels and ground feeding birds, nope, nothing doing.

Isn't that the strangest thing?

Anyway, it was only 2 bucks. I tossed it in the compost bin and nothing ate it there, either!


So it you see it, don't waste your $.

 

[delisha]

No..not catdance..hattrick..however they are not directly from hattrick..they were from someone saying they were hattrick. I have since been contacted from another person who also purchased eggs and said he had many problems with extra toes. I am going to just sell the whole batch as pets if I do get extra toes. I am going to repurchase catdance..but not till later and better weather. and after Mumsy hatches out hers.

 

[aoxa]

No..not catdance..hattrick..however they are not directly from hattrick..they were from someone saying they were hattrick. I have since been contacted from another person who also purchased eggs and said he had many problems with extra toes. I am going to just sell the whole batch as pets if I do get extra toes. I am going to repurchase catdance..but not till later and better weather. and after Mumsy hatches out hers.

When you get a chance, take some pictures of the one white that hatched

 

[Mumsy]

UGH!

I did the test with the Home Lead testing kit this morning. Negative.

So what do I think? I still think it was lead poisoning. The kit? It is not designed to test organic tissue. My gut tells me I couldn't get the tissue to break down into small enough particles to render into a solution. Thus the reason I preserved the second sample in the freezer.

In hind sight. The best thing for me to have done was ship the entire carcass to a lab. I have learned so much in the last two days. I do not regret doing the necropsy, though it was one of the most emotionally difficult things I've done. Way out of my comfort zone. I had become more attached to that little pullet than I realized.

I have spent many hours over the last couple days studying about lead poisoning in birds. I have looked at so many necropsy images of chickens and ducks, my mind is numb. But one thing is certain in my mind. All of the symptoms and findings in my necropsy do not look like anything else BUT lead poisoning.

I found an on line site showing how to do a lab credited necropsy of a chicken. I wish I had studied it before I did mine. I would have done it all differently. The most important thing I did was take pictures of what I saw, write down my birds symptoms, and save that second sample. My sample is useless now for determining pathogens because I collected the day after the carcass had sat outside and I froze it incorrectly.... But lead will still be that tissue if there ever was any to begin with. I have learned lead concentrates in the liver, gall bladder, and kidneys. I should have preserved those organs separately. I have learned the easiest test for lead poisoning is a blood draw while the bird is alive. Now I know.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Thank you for all the photos and information. I'm not looking forward to having to kill any of my own birds and it makes my stomach sick thinking about you and your situation with this little one.

I'm so thankful for the photos and information that you've been willing to share. It helps us all learn and be aware of what we can do to prevent this on our own property. Definitely brought up a topic that I've not seen discussed before. That's what this thread is about - helping us all learn so we can do better. Thanks again.

 

[chikenscratch]

I am posting this in an attempt to see if it works

 

[chikenscratch]

Yeah